Eliminating Ergonomic Injuries is Simple

Some interesting statistics about ergonomics in the workplace have been presented by Dr Ken Kaufman, adjunct faculty at State College of Florida and president of E & E Wellness Solutions. He says that preventable ergonomic injuries account for fully one-third of all workplace injuries and illnesses. And, that as a result, U.S. employers pay more than $15 billion in workers compensation claims for these injuries every year. In addition, as many as 785,000 lost work days are reported as a result of ergonomic injuries annually.

Ergonomics is defined as “designing the job, equipment and tools to fit the worker, and fitting the worker to the job.” So much scientific study on ergonomics has been done in recent years (designing the job, equipment and tools to fit the worker) that the vast majority of ergonomic injuries are completely preventable.

Dr. Kaufman works with business leaders to learn really simple it is to eliminate ergonomic injuries, and thus increase their profitability. For example, carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), usually caused by repetitive finger and wrist movements, is the leading cause of lost work time. Dr. Kaufman says that only 23% of workers requiring surgery for CTS can return to their previous job, and almost 36% of all CTS patients require on-going medical treatment. And the ounce of prevention can prevent a peck of trouble, as well as the loss of profits.

“Fortunately, many of these cases can be prevented with the proper strategy and for a relatively small investment,” says Dr. Kaufman. “Creating a prevention-conscious culture will go a long way in building strong participation in a business’s injury prevention program.”

Although many companies, and their employees, recognize the need to set up an ergonomic work station, the companies need to actively participate in building the workstation as well as in training and encouraging its workers to use it properly.
“It’s necessary to create a strategy that encourages and supports employees to look for ways to diminish the stressors in their home and work environment,” points out Dr. Kaufman. “They need to learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of a problem and understand when it is appropriate to implement passive and active types of self-therapy to help relieve the underlying cause of the problem.”

This sounds like the perfect lead-in to talk about the advantages of using the ergonomic UGLee Pen. If your work requires you to do any kind of hand writing at all, then using a pen that will support the health of your hand is paramount. The UGLee Pen is designed to provide relaxation and rest to the over-worked, and over-stressed tendons and muscles in your hands and fingers. It’s a perfect addition to your ergonomic work station.

There are a number of simple tests to determine if you do have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Take a look on my website ; naturalcuresforcarpaltunnelsyndrome.com where I have posted a video of one of the tests.